Tundran Space, Standard Year 404 after founding

  “Gray Serpent moving in to attack.” Captain Arden’s voice came in over the speakers of their tiny shuttle.

  “Sicaro here, standing by.” Tony acknowledged. He gave Alanna a brief nod before putting on his helmet, watching her do the same. Their small shuttle was coming in just behind the Grey Serpent, waiting for the big ship to disable the Sarayan station’s sensors before they moved in.

  So easy to simply miss, Alanna thought as the light of battle flashed on their viewscreen. So easy to leave the Sarayan sensors intact and let the Sarayans take care of one annoying little problem. Their small shuttle had no shields to speak of. If the Sarayans saw them coming, they would take out the shuttle with a single shot. But she didn’t think the captain would do it. The draw of disabling Sarayan guns before sending in her crew would be too great. The captain wanted her people safe.

  “Move in now.” Captain Arden’s voice came through again.

  Alanna nodded to Tony as he flew unnoticed past the station’s defenses, positioning the tiny shuttle directly over the Sarayan station and keying the doors to open. Which they didn’t. “Oh hell.” Tony muttered. He planted his magnetized boots as best he could and shoved harder, moving aside slightly to leave room for Alanna to do the same. About ninety tense seconds later, the doors opened enough for them both to slip out, followed by the drones.

  ---

  “Captain, a bomb just went off in the breakroom. And…” Bernard Bernhard’s second in command gestured mutely at the viewscreen, where the Tundran battle cruiser had just come into view.

  Captain Bernhard nodded calmly. “Find Danil and arrest him. Now.” There was only one man on his ship, that he suspected of colluding with the Tundrans and setting a bomb to distract his people during a Tundran attack. And that man, was Danil Kai.

  “Yes, captain.” The other man said automatically. When Captain Bernhard gave an order, it was the only possible response. He hesitated for the briefest of moments before leaving the bridge in the midst of a battle. “Will there be anything else?”

  “Danil must be questioned, Commander. And our time is limited. Aster may yet be of some use.”

  “Understood, captain.”

  ---

  “It’s taking too long.” Tony said. They had fully disabled three turret guns, with three more to go. For the larger Tundran shuttle to go in without taking a hit, they needed at least six guns disabled. And they lost precious time prying open the shuttle doors. Tony knew the captain well enough to realize she would be getting impatient. “I’m going to ask for more time.” He opened the channel, prepared to provide the update… and heard nothing but static.

  “He’s jammed our comms.” Alanna said, her voice barely legible. Even short range comms was barely operational, which was unheard of. Jamming long distance signals was possible. Jamming something at this close range took incredible power. And yet, it was happening. And just like that, the reality that was Bernard Bernhard was upon them. “We don’t have time to disable the other guns, just smash into them as hard as you can!”

  “What?”

  “Smash into them!” Alanna repeated, setting an example. All they could do now was try to shift the gun’s positions far enough to disrupt their aim. Tony backed her, Alanna saw with relief. He always did. Together they shifted three more guns. It would have to be enough. “This way!” Alanna shouted, grabbing his arm in her bulky space suit and pulling him away.

  “Drones!” Tony shouted, scooping up four as best he could before following Alanna. With their comms being jammed, the drones weren’t following his commands, they were a deadweight.

  Alanna grabbed the other two drones and ran. A flash of the Gray Serpent’s guns illuminated the spot where they had just stood, shaking the metal shell of the station under their feet. Hands trembling, Alanna pulled at the hatch she knew was there as the Gray Serpent continued to fire.

  “It’s locked.” Tony said. “Alanna, it’s locked.” He repeated, pressing his helmet to hers to get the signal to come through as clearly as he could.

  Alanna gasped. Code, she thought, ignoring the blaze of fire coming from the Gray Serpent’s guns and trusting the magnetized surface of her boots to keep her from flying off the station and down towards Titan, forever. Code. She knew Captain Cyrus Mace’s code. It seemed an eternity had passed. Would it work? Could she even remember it? She had practiced this once. Letting her fingers remember for her, she entered the code, holding her breath for one long moment.

  It was Tony who saw the slight lift of the hatch against the station’s surface and pushed it upwards, pushing her and the drones into the airlock and shutting the hatch. Alanna smashed the familiar button she knew would open the airlock, dropping them both into the station’s corridor as the metal above twisted and bent behind them, permanently damaged by the Gray Serepent’s attack. Without missing a beat, Tony turned to take out two shocked Sarayans at the other end of the hallway, staring at them as they dropped out of the airlock. “Danil’s not here.” He tried saying. Shaking his head at Alanna’s incomprehensible response, he took off his helmet and dropped it. “Danil’s not here.” He repeated.

  Alanna took off her own helmet and grabbed Tony’s, tossing both into the mangled airlock behind them and removing the most obvious evidence of Tundran presence on the station. The six drones lay in the airlock, still intact but useless unless they found an open channel they could use to send orders to the drones. “Bernard has Danil.” She said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. Bernard had Danil. Bernard was coming for her. He was coming for all of them. Her hands tightened on her gun. “Let him come.” She whispered under her breath, hearing James’s voice in her head. Alanna took a breath, trying not to choke on the stale stench of de-oxygenated, recycled station air. “We need to get Danil.” She said.

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  Tony grabbed her by the shoulder and pressed his back against the wall of the corridor, giving him visibility in both directions. There was no cover. “Why?” He asked shortly.

  “They’re not jamming their own comms.” Alanna said. “We need access to their comm channel. You can use it to command the drones.”

  “Don’t you have it? Your access code worked on that door.”

  “No one ever changes those. Tundrans tend to make their own doors, so no one bothers. But the comms channel codes get changed all the time.”

  “How about we get the next Sarayan we see and I get them to cooperate? I could do it in record time.”

  “Danil will be faster.” Alanna said, shaking off his hand and heading down the hallway. “And we need more people. You want to liberate? We’re going to start with the brig.”

  “You think there might be other people in the brig?”

  “Oh yeah, there’ll be other people in the brig.” Alanna said, her voice coming out oddly as she gasped for breath. The air quality was hitting her hard. Was the air on D12 this bad? Whether the people in the brig would be in any condition to help, was another matter entirely.

  “You have your oxygenator on?” Tony asked softly.

  “My what?”

  “Switch around your neck, left hand side. Flip it on.”

  “I have it.” Alanna breathed in, feeling her head clear.

  Tony gestured for her to take the front while he took the rear. “Move.” He said softly.

  They took out six more Sarayans on their way to the brig, but the halls were relatively deserted. So far, no one seemed to be particularly organized or alert. No one knew they were on board. Not yet. The brig was in the lowermost section of the station, furthest from the bridge. With the Tundran battle cruiser within shooting range, most of the crew was on the upper level, manning the battle stations. The ground shook periodically under their feet but as they drew closer to the brig, everything appeared entirely deserted.

  Alanna held out her hand, stopping Tony from continuing to move forward. “It’s just around the corner.” She said softly. “If they arrested Danil, he won’t be alone. Someone will be there to question him.”

  “How do we get in?” Tony asked.

  “Shit.” Alanna muttered under her breath. “Will a grenade do it?”

  “It might.” Tony said with some reluctance. He was thinking of that thirty foot hallway on their way to the bridge. They needed those grenades.

  Alanna nodded, acknowledging his reluctance. “Let’s see if it’s locked first.” She said optimistically. Oddly, she was feeling better. The luxury of oxygenated air was giving her a much needed boost of confidence.

  Tony opened his mouth to point out that no one would be stupid enough to leave the brig unlocked, not even from the outside. And promptly shut it, bringing his gun to bear as the door opened in front of them. There were two guards, and Alanna shot them both before either had time to reach for their guns. “Guard the door.” She said shortly, moving towards Danil. His face was bruised but he appeared to still be intact, unlike the others in the room. Alanna moved to unlock the cuffs from his arms and tossed him a gun from one of the fallen guards.

  “Aster.” Danil gasped, his eyes on one of the other people in the room.

  Alanna turned. She did not recognize Aster. The woman… she thought it was a woman. Her face was gone and she appeared to be trying to scream, but there was no sound. The lurch in her stomach caught her completely by surprise. Alanna retched. And then she threw up, putting her head down just in time.

  “Jesus.” Tony said in disgust, grabbing her by the shoulder. “You watch the door.”

  Tony switched his setting to killing rounds and killed the other five people in the room, then turned and took out the two guards, for good measure. None of the prisoners were in any condition to survive being POWs, and the Tundrans didn’t have the medical supplies to spare. He turned back towards Danil and the other woman in the room, who appeared to be relatively intact apart from her face, to find himself staring into the barrel of Danil’s gun. “Uh. Alanna.” Tony said carefully, his eyes focused on Danil’s gun, and the killing round setting he could see so clearly from the short distance between them.

  “Danil, no!” Alanna ran back into the room, placing herself between Tony and Danil. “No!” She repeated, reaching out without hesitation and turning the barrel of the gun away from herself and Tony. “Put it down, Danil.”

  “He killed them!” Danil yelled, in the harsh voice of a man holding on to sanity by a very thin thread.

  “I would have killed them, Danil.” Alanna said without hesitation. “If you thought about it for half a minute, so would you.”

  “Stay away from Aster. Stay the fuck away from her!”

  “I wasn’t going to kill her.” Tony said over Alanna’s shoulder. “She’s in better condition than the others. And if you give me half a minute, I’ll find the pain meds she desperately needs.”

  “Danil?” Alanna said, her hand still on the barrel of his gun, her eyes searching his. “Danil, I got this. I need you to follow orders. Are you with me?”

  “I…”

  “Danil.” Alanna snapped. “Gun down.”

  “Yes, lieutenant.” Danil said automatically.

  “Lieutenant commander.” Tony corrected him, moving towards the medical supplies. “Alanna, go back and watch the door.”

  “What are you giving her?” Danil’s shaking voice echoed through the room.

  “Quiet.” Alanna hissed. She was standing in the open doorway to the brig, and she didn’t want to shut it. It would limit her visibility if anyone approached. But the opened door meant their voices carried, potentially attracting unwanted attention.

  “Pain meds and steroids.” Tony’s calm voice responded softly, ignoring the soft, guttural sounds the woman made as he worked.

  “Gun.” Alanna said from the doorway. “No.” She shook her head as Tony came to her side, ready to shoot whatever was coming down the hallway. “Aster, she’s asking for a gun.”

  “Is that such a great idea?” Tony asked, lowering his voice further.

  “Give her the gun.” Alanna said shortly.

  “Yeah well, she’s not shooting you.”

  “No one here is shooting any of us.” Alanna said, raising her voice slightly. “Because we’re all going to take the bridge, shoot Bernard, and put his goddamn head on a spike. Does anyone have any questions? No? I didn’t think so. Give her the gun and move.”

  “You and Danil take the front, Aster and I take the rear.” Tony said shortly, moving in behind her a moment later. “Danil, if Aster can’t keep up, we leave her. If we survive this we can come back and get her later, but now is not the time. Clear?”

  Danil hesitated.

  “Danil.” Alanna snapped. “That is an order.”

  “Clear.” Danil said in a half whisper.

  “We need the code to access station comms.” Alanna said, trying to mask her nervousness about Danil’s mental state. Whatever they needed from the man, best to get it out of him sooner rather than later.

  “Yes.” Danil said vaguely.

  “Now.” Alanna reminded him. And to her eternal relief, Danil read out the code, his voice devoid of any emotion, his eyes glazed.

  “I have it.” Tony said at her back. “The drones are on their way. We move.”

  “We move.” Alanna echoed.

  This time, someone did know they were coming. The ambush was well planned, coming at them from around a corner as they made their way back towards the bridge. Unfortunately for the Sarayans, they didn’t know about the Tundran drones. Alanna took out the first attacker, a perfect headshot as he came at them from behind the corner. The drones took care of the rest.

  “We’re clearing out half the damn crew before Gregory’s team even get here.” Tony said behind her, a degree of satisfaction in his voice. “Good shot.”

  “It’s what I do.” Alanna said.

  “It’s what she does.” Danil echoed unexpectedly.

  “Keep moving.” Alanna said, ignoring the praise. Tony’s words were a reminder that Gregory’s shuttle had likely already landed. Time was short. They needed to take the bridge now, or it would be too late. For all of them.